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FEBRUARY 26-27,  2023

TAKING ON THE BIG GUYS:  Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis wants to be the toughest fighter in the ring, and he takes action to prove he can be just that.  Now he's confronting the monster, the most feared, the creature sent by the Devil himself...Mickey Mouse, and his gang of sinister friends, including the degenerate Snow White and her vicious little people.  You just watch Governor Ron at work.  From Fox: 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Monday signed a bill into law that ends Disney’s self-governing power and puts the media giant under the control of a state board.

"Since the 1960s, they’ve enjoyed privileges unlike any company or individual in the state of Florida has ever enjoyed," DeSantis said at a news conference held at a firehouse minutes away from Disney World. "They had exemptions from laws that everyone else had to follow. They were able to get huge amounts of benefits without paying their fair share of taxes."

Before signing the legislation, DeSantis told attendees to check their watches so they know "what time the corporate kingdom came to an end."

"How do you give one theme park its own government and then treat all of the other theme parks differently?" he asked. "So we believe that that was not good policy. We believe that being joined at the hip with this one California-based company was not something that was justifiable or sustainable."

He added that Disney will be treated like SeaWorld and other theme parks in the state.

The bill, HB9, renames the Randy Creek Improvement district, where Disney World is housed, to the Central Florida Tourism Oversight District that may only have term-limited members who are not recent employees or have been contracted by Disney in the past three years.

"My signature will also end Disney’s exemption from Florida building code and Florida fire prevention code. It will end Disney’s exemption from state regulatory reviews and approval," DeSantis said of the bill.

DeSantis announced the five names of the new board members that will have their first meeting next week. He added that one of the first items on the agenda for them will be reviewing the compensation for the first responders in the area.

"We have people that want to see Disney be what Walt envisioned," DeSantis said.

Following the signing, DeSantis was presented with an ax from the firefighters at the station hosting the conference.

COMMENT:  Sounds reasonable to me.  It benefits Florida and enhances the image of the governor as a man who gets things done.   I get the sense that the left-wing press is starting to panic. I mean, a man who beats Mickey Mouse can beat Joe Biden. 

February 27, 2023       Permalink

MOST ENTERTAINING LATEST POLLS:  We've cautioned often that polls are just snapshots in time, and, a year and a half before a presidential election, they're really more entertainment than news.  But they are such fun.  So, herewith, my choice for the most fun poll in the last few weeks.  Good stuff to chew on.  From Issues and Insights: 

If you’re wondering who Republican voters want to see square off in next year’s presidential primaries, it’s probably no big secret. As the latest polling data from I&I/TIPP show, a solid majority of registered GOP voters and independents who lean Republican, or Republican primary voters, say they want to see former President Donald Trump and current Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis duke it out on the primary trail.

In the latest poll, taken of 1,155 registered voters from Feb. 1-3, 397 were identified as GOP primary voters. They were asked to respond to the following statement: “I would like to see a primary contest between Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis.” They were given a choice to “agree strongly,” “agree somewhat,” “disagree somewhat,” “disagree strongly,” and “not sure.”

The margin of error for the sub-sample is +/-5 percentage points.

The answer that came back: an emphatic “yes.” By 61% to 23%, voters said they’d like to see DeSantis and Trump joust in the campaign, with 26% saying they agree “strongly” while 35% saying they agree “somewhat” strongly.

Republicans were slightly more keen than independents (56%) to see the two heavyweights face off, which perhaps is not so surprising. Both have made big headlines in recent months that have fired up their followers.

Some intriguing differences emerged among a few demographic groups.
For instance, men overwhelmingly (70%) wanted to see a Trump-DeSantis battle, as compared to just 55% of women.

Meanwhile, minority voters and white voters showed a big gap: Just 59% of white voters want to see the Trump-DeSantis battle, versus an overwhelming 94% of black voters and 72% of Hispanic voters.

Equally interesting, among those who self-describe as “conservative,” only 60% said they wanted to see that battle of the GOP titans, compared to 61% of moderates and 77% of liberals.

Why the big differences? Years of polling and unrelentingly negative media coverage show there is not much love for Trump in either the official Democratic Party, the “Never-Trump” circles of the Republican Party or the media.

Even so, his support has been strong at the grassroots level, and his hands-on, Everyman approach to campaigning has clearly struck a chord with minority voters, including some Democrats.

That is the most important thing to come out of this poll.

TIPP’s own polling on how the 2024 GOP presidential hopefuls are doing shows how the race currently stacks up.

We asked GOP primary voters, “If the Republican presidential primary were held today, whom would you support for the nomination?”

At this very early stage in the game, one candidate has established a clear lead: Trump.

Half of respondents said they would support Trump, compared to 27% who would support DeSantis.

No other major candidate — not Nikki Haley (1%), not former Vice President Mike Pence (7%), not former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (2%), not former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (0%) — even broke into double digits. Just 2% answered “someone else,” while 9% said “not sure.”

COMMENT:  There's more to the poll.  Read on.  I'm fascinated by the comments about minority voters, and also fascinated by the continuing loyalty of the Trump voters.  

At the same time, it is clear that DeSantis has done a masterful job of making himself into a national figure in a very short period of time.  Name recognition is critical in politics, and he has it because he's earned it.   He's earned many things.  Good things.  Watch him.

February 26, 2023       Permalink 

FEBRUARY 24-25,  2023

SHORT TAKES ON THE DRIFTING WRECKAGE: 

MUST WE SUFFER?  New Yorkers now face more political trauma.  From the New York Post:   The left is looking to oust Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in next year’s Democratic primary — which gives Republicans a chance to take the seat if they can nominate a heavy-hitter for the general.  The Post reported weeks ago on progressives’ ambitions for the seat, and now the left-leaning Daily Beast confirms the “emerging sense among New York insiders” that she’s “vulnerable enough.”  Ironically, she’s so vulnerable to the left for the same reason she’s failed to face a major GOP challenge in the past: She’s had so little impact that most voters barely know who she is.  In a general election in this heavily Democratic state, that gives her enough of an edge that big names shy away. But in a lower-turnout primary, it’s an invitation to well-organized progressives.  On that front, the biggest-name potential challenger is plainly democratic socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, whose $5.4 million campaign war chest eclipses the senator’s own $4 million fund. Other possibilities: ex-Rep. Mondaire Jones and Bronx Rep. Ritchie Torres (though he says he’s not interested in running). Did someone say AOC?  Oh no.  It's bad enough to replace one mediocrity with another, but does it have to be a socialist mediocrity?  We should demand that New York be declared a political disaster area, and eligible for federal psychiatric aid.  We are deserving.  We are deserving.

February 25, 2023       Permalink

A STEP FORWARD:  The University of North Carolina has taken a significant step forward in the battle against campus weirdness and political correctness.  All praise.  From the New York Post: 

In a growing backlash against woke culture, the board of the University of North Carolina moved to ban diversity, equity and inclusion requirements from its hiring and promotion process this week.

The school’s Board of Governors voted to ban DEI statements from hiring and tenure decisions, according to a report.

The Chapel Hill-based school “shall neither solicit nor require an employee or applicant for academic admission or employment to affirmatively ascribe to or opine about beliefs, affiliations, ideals, or principles regarding matters of contemporary political debate or social action as a condition to admission, employment, or professional advancement,” according to the decision, made Thursday.

A non-profit that has been advocating for an end to DEI requirements in institutions across the country, took credit for the move.

Kenny Xu, president of Color Us United, said his group has been behind the push to abolish DEI at UNC’S medical school, and started a petition that now has 614 signatures.

The petition includes the statement, “I am deeply concerned about the indulgence of wokeness and DEI in the North Carolina medical system. It makes me feel like I am part of a radical social experiment, rather than a patient to be trusted and cared for.”

The medical school’s Guidelines for Appointment, Promotion and Tenure previously declared that “A statement for each area is required as part of the C.V.” and “should outline depth and breadth of efforts in each area, including but not limited to impact of work, philosophy and style, team-based projects, and mentee interactions.”

Earlier this month, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced an initiative to ban DEI from state-funded schools.

COMMENT:  Applause, applause.  Led by Governor DeSantis and others, and joined by angry parents and students, the battle against hard-left policies is making progress.  But make no mistake, this battle will be long and hard, and the militants on the other side will not hesitate to throw around words like "racist" to describe anyone on our side. 

But we can win.  Republican state governors are playing a major role,  especially Glenn Youngkin in Virginia and Kim Reynolds in Iowa.  They are fighting for school choice and for true academic freedom in colleges.  Support them.

February 25, 2023       Permalink   

I LOVE IT!  I don't think I've seen this before.  If I'm wrong, let me know.  It's clear that Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida will be running for president.  It's also clear he's a man who means what he says.  Like Reagan, he tells us what he plans to do, and then does it.  What a shock.  How can Washington take it?

And it's now becoming equally clear that DeSantis is willing to clash with the biased, twisted media if necessary, and he won't back down.  Get this, from The Hill: 

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will boycott media appearances on NBC News and MSNBC shows, according to his press team, until one of the network’s star reporters apologizes for a question she posed about the governor’s education policies.

“There will be no consideration of anything related to NBC Universal or its affiliates until and at least Andrea Mitchell corrects the blatant lie she made about the governor,” DeSantis’s press secretary, Bryan Griffin, said in an email to the network that he posted on Twitter.

The “lie” that the DeSantis camp is protesting is a question Mitchell put to Vice President Harris last week, in which she asked: “What does Governor Ron DeSantis not know about Black history and the Black experience when he says that slavery and the aftermath of slavery should not be taught to Florida schoolchildren?” 

Mitchell later said her questioning was “imprecise” but did not explicitly apologize. The Hill has reached out to NBC for further comment.

Griffin said NBC and its affiliates must “display a consistent track record of truthful reporting” before DeSantis, who has had an often acrimonious relationship with the mainstream media, agrees to future appearances.

Last year, DeSantis signed into law the Stop WOKE Act, which prohibited the teaching of Critical Race Theory in Florida schools, as well as lessons about historical topics in ways that would make someone feel personally responsible for a past wrong based on their own race, sex or national origin.

Critics say the measure unfairly limits the teaching of subjects such as the Civil War and the Jim Crow era.

DeSantis garnered further outrage from Democrats and activists after his administration earlier this year rejected the new Advanced Placement (AP) African American studies course launched by the College Board, criticizing the course as lacking “educational value.”

The DeSantis administration objected to topics including Black queer studies, intersectionality, the reparations movement, the Black Lives Matter movement, Black feminist literary thought and the Black struggle in the 21st century.

The College Board later released changes to the AP course that aligned with many of DeSantis’s criticisms, but claimed that the changes were not due to the governor’s influence. DeSantis has yet to say if the state will accept the course as amended.

COMMENT:  NBC should apologize to the governor.  He never suggested what Andrea Mitchell said he suggested.  As a liberal network, NBC, once a great news operation, may not care that the mistake was made.  But the public, especially parents with kids in school, might care very much.  The parents' revolt that we've discussed here is very real.  It exists.  It is largely responsible for flipping Virginia into the Republican column.  Education has become one of the hottest issues in the land.  If TV news get the story wrong, or slants it, parents will know.  Given the generally miserable approval ratings of the American media, you'd think they'd want to clean up their operations before the next presidential campaign.

February 24, 2023       Permalink